Missouri and Ohio school board associations leave National School Board Association over 'domestic terrorists' letter



The school board associations in Missouri and Ohio on Tuesday separately announced they are ending their membership with the National School Boards Association over a letter the NSBA sent to President Joe Biden last month requesting federal law enforcement to intervene at local school board meetings.

Ohio School Board Association President Robert Heard and Chief Executive Officer Richard Lewis wrote to the NSBA to inform the organization that "OSBA will not continue its membership in the National School Boards Association."

"OSBA's decision to terminate membership and affiliation with the NSBA Association is a direct result of the letter sent by you to President Joe Biden last month," they wrote. "The letter purported to be sent on behalf of state associations and school board members across the nation. This assertion could not be further from the truth. OSBA was not notified of the letter, nor were we asked for our thoughts on the matter.

"If we had been consulted, we would have strongly disagreed with NSBA's decision to request federal intervention as well as your claims of domestic terrorism and hate crimes," the letter stated.

"OSBA's decision to terminate membership and affiliation with the NSBA is a direct result of the letter sent by you… https://t.co/rmFWTrmrxo

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) 1635251045.0

Similarly, the Missouri School Board Association said Tuesday the NSBA has shown it does not align with the state organization's principles of local governance.

"We also believe that no school board member or educator should ever have to endure threats of violence or acts of intimidation against themselves or their families for making these difficult decisions. However, attempting to address that issue with federal intervention should not be the first step in most cases, and is antithetical to our long-standing tradition of local control," the MSBA said.

"Further, the use of inflammatory terms in the NSBA letter is not a model for promoting greater civility and respect for the democratic process."

In September, the NSBA wrote to Biden that school board members nationwide were "under an immediate threat" from concerned parents and residents opposed to critical race theory, transgender policies, and COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates. The letter requested federal assistance in response to incidents of violence at raucous school board protests and alleged threats made against some school board members. It also likened protesting parents to "domestic terrorists," which led to widespread criticism both from parents and from at least 21 state school board associations who said they were not consulted about the letter before the national organization claimed to speak for them.

In response, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Oct. 4 that the Department of Justice is "committed to using its authority and resources" to address alleged threats and violence, drawing fire from critics who said the Biden administration was unfairly targeting concerned parents.

On Oct. 15, the Pennsylvania School Board Association became the first state school board association to leave the national group over the letter.

"The most recent national controversy surrounding a letter to President Biden suggesting that some parents should be considered domestic terrorists was the final straw," the PSBA said.

"Attempting to solve the problems with a call for federal intervention is not the place to begin, nor a model for promoting greater civility and respect for the democratic process," it added.

The Ohio School Board Association raised similar concerns in its letter.

"OSBA believes strongly in the value of parental and community discussion at school board meetings, and we reject the labeling of parents as domestic terrorists. There is tremendous value in allowing and encouraging the public to have meaningful input into the decision-making process," the letter stated.

"However, that participation should not come at the expense of interfering with the board's ability to conduct its businesses or subjecting individual board members to threats of violence, abuse, or harassment. That said, dealing with such interference should be dealt with at the local level, not by federal officials.

"The NSBA letter demonstrated just how out of touch the national association is with the concerns of local school boards and the principle of local control. OSBA can no longer allow NSBA to speak for our association or our membership and no longer see the value of continued membership."

Facing public controversy, the NSBA apologized for the letter and said it would conduct an internal review of the processes and procedures that led to it being sent to the White House without input from state school board associations.

Pennsylvania School Boards Association quits national group over letter calling parents 'domestic terrorists'



The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has voted to quit the National School Boards Association, writing that a recent NSBA letter to the Biden administration that likened protesting parents to "domestic terrorists" was the impetus for its decision.

"The most recent national controversy surrounding a letter to President Biden suggesting that some parents should be considered domestic terrorists was the final straw," the Pennsylvania association wrote in an internal memo.

In late September, the NSBA wrote to President Joe Biden stating that school board members nationwide were "under an immediate threat" from concerned parents and residents opposed to critical race theory, transgender policies, and COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates. The letter requested federal assistance in response to incidents of violence at raucous school board protests and alleged threats made against some school board members.

The letter cited more than 20 examples of loud protests against school boards in recent months, as irate parents have confronted school officials over school mask mandates, prolonged school closures during the pandemic, pornographic material being taught in K-12 classrooms, "racist" lessons based on critical race theory, and more.

"As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes," the NSBA told Biden.

In response, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Oct. 4 that the Department of Justice is "committed to using its authority and resources" to address alleged threats and violence, drawing fire from critics who said the Biden administration was unfairly targeting concerned parents.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is among those critics. The state association wrote that the NSBA's "misguided approach has made our work and that of many school boards more difficult. It has fomented more disputes and cast partisanship in our work on behalf of school directors."

full statement: https://t.co/XCWGIpmD2h

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) 1634266932.0

"PSBA abhors the fact that some boards have been met with threats and violence. We are absolutely opposed to such actions. A school board meeting needs to be the model of democracy in action — locally elected officials hearing from the public as local solutions are debated and formulated. ... However, attempting to solve the problems with a call for federal intervention is not the place to begin, nor a model for promoting greater civility and respect for the democratic process," the association wrote.

The PSBA said that among the other reasons to dissolve its ties to the national group are that the NSBA "is not focused on bipartisanship, civility and seeking solutions to the internal problems that have plagued the national organization for so long."

"The PSBA Governing Board has directed PSBA staff to develop additional services and resources to meet the ongoing, evolving needs of our membership. We intend to continue to work closely with other state school boards associations and remain hopeful that following this period of substantial tumult for the NSBA, we will find a new national organization ready and able to serve all its member states effectively," the memo concluded.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is a nonprofit association of public school boards in the state, representing more than 4,500 school board members. Founded in 1985, it was the first school boards association established in the United States.

Teachers union boss gets shellacked for saying teachers, who spent months at home, are exhausted and need to be nourished



The president of the second-largest teachers union in the United States got slammed for recently saying that teachers are "tired and exhausted," despite being at home for months. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also said that "we have to find a way to repair and nourish" teachers, which was lampooned by online commenters.

Weingarten appeared on MSNBC Friday night, where she attempted to persuade viewers that the AFT wants to reopen schools, despite having yet to commit to in-person learning in the fall.

"Number one we want schools to reopen for a rapport and we don't want outbreaks," Weingarten said. "We want schools open and we want them to stay open."

But Weingarten said that teachers "don't want to be the mask police," adding that Texas and Iowa made a politically motivated decision to "rush to say no mask mandates when we still don't have a vaccine that's okay for elementary school students."

"Well there's two plans: one is for the summer and one is for the fall," the union boss of 1.7 million members said. "In the fall we have to first and foremost create a safe and welcoming environment."

Weingarten attempted to garner sympathy for teachers.

"Teachers are tired; they are exhausted," she said. "We have to find a way to repair and nourish them as well as families in terms of attracting and retaing our teaching force."

Online commenters mocked Weingarten's comments about teachers being "exhausted."

  • "Let's try this, Randi. STUDENTS are tired; they are exhausted. They've been put on the back burner by teachers unions for over a year so a virus could be used for political power gains. And MONEY. And pushing CRT so they can be told their skin color is all that matters.Shameful."
  • "From what? Sitting our your asses on Zoom? People have had it with your no work, whining nonsense."
  • "Why do public school teachers think they're so special? Parents and students not exhausted and tired too. medical workers and grocery store workers need to be nourished and repaired too. You. Aren't. Special."
  • "Poor teachers. Where I live in Oregon they got vaccinated before 80+ months ago, and many are still not back at school. My kids are getting 2 hours twice a week in person. When it was Zoom it was 2 hours 4 days a week. They must be so exhausted. I hope the teachers are ok."
  • "Having a whole year off must be exhausting!"
  • "Straight talk: Schools should not have closed this year. What was always clear is now *crystal* clear. Accountability for the high costs of closures to children is beyond-fair."
  • "If you don't actively scorn teacher's unions by this point, you're not paying attention."

Weingarten, who has a reported salary of around $500,000, has recently been attempting to change the perception that she is a proponent of reopening schools thanks to the help of Democratic figures, including first lady Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Randi Weingarten is the person most responsible for destroying this school year for so many kids. She led the way o… https://t.co/F7hK9Z7ByG

— Karol Markowicz (@karol) 1621343927.0

On May 18, Weingarten appeared on C-SPAN, where frustrated parents grilled the AFT boss for refusing to reopen schools.

Parents call into C-SPAN to grill Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers:https://t.co/rzrKkiXoYp

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) 1621428916.0

One upset parent astutely asked Weingarten, "How come the parochial schools and the private schools could navigate their way through this scenario, but the public schools didn't seem to be able to manage that?"

Weingarten's answer via Reason:

So this is part of the reason why we asked the last administration to collect data on all of these things. So there were many many many public schools that have been open in a hybrid manner or in a full-time manner since September. And there have been many private schools, and many parochial schools [open]. And there have been many private and parochial schools that were not open. But we don't have the data, we have the anecdotal data. Fifteen percent, for example—a piece of data that I just got a couple of weeks ago—fifteen percent of parochial and private schools have closed fully during this period of time.

Many of the private schools that I know when I started asking them the questions about how are they doing this because we have to learn from each other, they said that they got the PPP loans that was in one of the first COVID packages so that they could do the testing that I just talked about, and they could do the layers of mitigation. And they also had parents, in a couple of the private schools, they had parents who shelled out a lot more money to do that. And the parochial schools, we saw some extra space that got used in those kind of ways.
And frankly, some of us also, you know, said that every one of the schools, you know, who were serving poor people had to get additional funding, and I got criticized by my, you know, public education friends for doing that. This is a matter of we have to learn from each other. But at the end of the day, if you have a ventilation system that doesn't work, if you don't have soap and water in your schools, if you can't get soap and water, and you need to have, you know, you need to wash kids, everyone needs to wash their hands, perhaps sanitizing stations, all of those things were resource-based things that were really important.

Earlier this month, Weingarten implied that Fox News and former President Donald Trump were at fault as to why schools are not reopened now.

Weingarten's AFT has been scrutinized for its cozy relationship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Damning emails between AFT officials and the CDC suggest that the teachers union successfully lobbied the CDC on the health agency's reopening guidance and language.

AFT donated nearly $20 million to Democrats in 2020, according to watchdog The Center Square.